April Lipatan

Entrepreneur, Furniture-Maker | Paris, France

How did you decide to go into the field of landscape architecture?

I first decided to go into the field when I was still an undecided undergrad searching for my place in the world of knowledge. I always knew that I loved plants; in fact, my first job was working at a nursery/greenhouse with over 42 greenhouses. I had started out studying botany and biology in Bismarck and discovered that I didn't like plants down to the cellular level. A year later, I found myself visiting the civil engineering hall where my partner at the time was studying, when I stumbled across a display of very intriguing plant art images. I read that the project was under the direction of Stevie Famulari. I walked into the office just behind me to ask more about the project and what program it was connected to. After a very inspiring description, I was sold! I wanted to sign up immediately. At the time I signed up for the program, all students had the choice to apply for both architecture and landscape architecture simultaneously or one or the other; I chose landscape architecture.

What geographic regions do you work in and how did you come to settle in Paris?

I currently work out of Paris, France. My address is actually outside of Paris about 30miles, next to a giant park called Fontainebleau Forest, but I do travel to and from Paris quite often. When I was studying abroad as an NDSU Landscape Architecture student,I studied and collaborated with students from Portugal, Germany, and of course, France. I fell in love with the french landscape almost immediately and also a french boy who is now my partner of 8 years. When I came back to the states I had two more years of studies until I graduated, so did Adrien, my partner. As we were both applying to jobs internationally, we had decided that whoever got a job first the other would follow. Adrien ended up finding a job first and so back to France I went.

I ended up continuing onto my masters in European Metropolitan Urbanism with one of the best universities for urbanism in France. The course was split up into two parts, the first semester in Paris and the second in Hamburg, Germany. Here, I was able to apply what I learned from NDSU to a much larger scale and from a different perspective from the European students. Having studied in three different countries and graduating with three different degrees, I was well equipped to start a company. And that's exactly what I did next.

When I moved back to Paris, I started getting in touch with all of my contacts from my first study abroad with NDSU. I connected with one of the students I collaborated within France, who also happens to be a Harvard grad, and we ended up starting a project called Sciago. This was an online platform that helped researchers in urbanism to have round table talks, find international collaborators, find funding, and jobs. In order to help researchers find jobs, we searched for large companies related to urbanism that were interested in doing prospective research. Sciago would then gather a team of researchers and organize the research for them, helping to make the lives of researchers and cities better. Long story short, this project was a huge success working with $150k projects, but we were in over our heads as the project could no longer be called a project.

By 2018, I had a good grip on the French language, a strong understanding of the startup and business world in France, and so I decided to stay a little longer and give it another shot. I started another company called Asana Rebels, joining forces with a business partner who specialized in interior design and had previously been a consultant in environmental sustainability. Here we moved towards more of a lifestyle company, focusing on clients who wanted designs that made peoples lives happier,healthier, and that were good for the environment. Together we designed and built several fascinating products and learned alongside one another as we followed our passions. Out of this job came the conception and creation of two pieces of furniture made from wood. This is where I discovered my passion for woodworking and making things with my hands.

How did your education at NDSU prepare you to be a landscape architect and entrepreneur?

My design background gained as a student at NDSU is absolutely invaluable to where I am now. Project planning as a student is key. If you missed this as an LA student, you missed a pretty big lesson. Understanding how to organize meetings with different stakeholders, groups, and officials involved in each project really helped me out as an entrepreneur. I was able to organize teams, departments within a company, and my own personal time all because of the invaluable knowledge gained as a student managing my four month long landscape architecture projects at NDSU. I don't think every major is accompanied with this same value.

What were some of the most valuable lessons you learned here?

As mentioned above, time management was a big one. One specific lesson that I learned is that I didn't take a chance and dream big for my thesis project. I tried to stay within the boundaries so that it wasn't too much. As you can now see, I've taken that lesson and learned from it. I dive in at every chance I get. Don't just get your feet wet people, dive in! Another value that landscape architecture left me with was the habit of learning new computer programs and technologies on a regular basis. In the LA program, students are exposed to many technologies at our fingertips. It's all about your own motivation and drive to learn to use what you pay for. The classmates I had were all super creative in using anything including solutions that came from outside of the studio. With this mindset, I found that compared to many people around me in the professional world, I was not scared to teach myself how to use a new program or to seek training to use anew technology. I just naturally was proactive and I attribute this to my experience with my education with NDSU.

What advice do you have for current landscape architecture students?

Think outside the box! Get new perspectives everyday. Share your knowledge and learn from those who aren't around you everyday. Take chances and fall in love with a Frenchy if you want, but have the courage to experience new things all the time. All of our choices come from either fear or love, the next time you think you may be too scared to connect with an intimidating contact, try a new activity, to make that speech,or to apply for that dream job, I challenge everyone to think about how that situation could positively impact your life. You never know where opportunity is hiding. It's our job as students of this life to go out into the unknown and find it.Jim Carey once spoke about how his father was scared to become what he was passionate about, being a comedian. But he was too scared that he might fail, and that the job would be too hard, and that too many comedians fail. He ended up choosing a safe job as an accountant and also ended up losing that very same job and then struggled to support his already poor family. He said, "You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love."